A Rod & Custom Road Trip

It’s funny how the world works. Earlier this summer, I was wandering around the L.A. Roadster Show swap meet, melting to the blacktop, when I stumbled across an ultra-clean Deuce highboy parked near the gate. The flathead-powered roadster hit all the right notes from the Tannish-Gray Ford paint to the steelies, caps and just-right stance. Instinctively, I checked the windshield and discovered it belonged to a “Joe and Ryan Mapes” from Tucson, Arizona. Picture snapped. Caption written. Car posted to Instagram. The day marched on.

A few hours later, I was manning the Rodder’s Journal booth when Ryan Mapes came over, introduced himself and told me more about the freshly finished ’32. As I’m sure many of you may know, he’s Teach’m here on the H.A.M.B., and he and his dad have built a number of top-notch cars through the years. Along with the aforementioned roadster, they’re responsible for a green Deuce Fordor with a big Cadillac engine that Ryan refers to as his “Road Car.”

Down in Tucson, the Mapes family lives a little over an hour north of the U.S./Mexico border. Although the area has its benefits, Ryan says there isn’t a whole lot happening as far as traditional hot rod and custom car events are concerned. So he hit the Internet, scoured the entire U.S., and came across the Hot Rod Hill Climb. There was no question—he had to go.

Now in its fifth year, the event brings a slew of traditional machines to Central City, Colorado, for a weekend filled with hot flatheads, rapping sixes and vintage tin of all types. It’s a classic scene. Even though he wouldn’t be racing, he figured the best way to get there was with a tri-state road trip—taking two-lane byways pretty much the entire time.

Ryan and his wife Gretchen joined forces with fellow Tucson hot rodders Mike and Amber Kerwin and planned their route. The Mapes would be in their sedan, while the Kerwins would be piloting their ’52 Cadillac hardtop. The Cad is an older restoration that they lowered—a lot. It’s static dropped and, much like the Fordor, it gets driven.

When I was able to catch Ryan on the phone, he was about 900 miles into the trip in Leadville, Colorado. They’d been through the little mountain towns of Durango, Silverton, Ouray and Salida. They had seen rain, construction, waterfalls, coffee shops and open roads that led to open skies.

Sure, they could have taken the highway and gotten there in a fraction of the time—but that wasn’t the point. Instead, they opted for the proverbial route less traveled and were rewarded with the sights, sounds and smells of the American road. As far as I know, that’s what hot rodding is all about.

Enjoy the Mapes’ and Kerwins’ shots from the first half of their nearly 2,000-mile rod and custom road trip. Oh, and if you see them in Colorado, ask them how they gained international acclaim near the tracks of the Durango & Silverton Railroad.

—Joey Ukrop